University of Ghana law professor John Atta Mills, age 64, was confirmed on Saturday as the winner of the runoff presidential election, the fifth in Ghana since the return to multi-party democracy in 1992.

Despite the ruling party’s call to boycott, the Tain local election officer also announced that Atta-Mills obtained 19,566 votes in Friday’s special election there, while Nana Akufo-Addo had only 2,053 ballots. Read More…

Ghana‘s electoral commission announced on Wednesday that a run-off election must be held for the Ghanian presidency.

The commission said that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo won 49.13% of the vote, slightly more than the other main candidate, John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who obtained 47.92%. However, neither candidate reached the 50% mark needed to declare an outright winner. Read More…

Officials say that a high turnout has been recorded for elections for president and parliament in Ghana.

Despite long queues at polling stations, the election has been reported as peaceful. 12.4 million voters, approximately half the country’s population, have cast their ballots.

“Voter turnout is going to be very high,” said Electoral Commission Chairman Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. “I should expect a higher number than we saw in the last elections because I could see this one is very competitive.” Turnout in 2004 was a record 85%.

The people of Ghana, a country often shown of as an example of a good democracy in Africa, will vote for a new president and parliament.

The current president, John Kufuor, will resign after serving the maximum of two terms in office. The elections are expected to be close.

The three main contenders for the presidency are: the Nana Akufo Addo from New Patriotic Party, who was the foreign minister under the current president, John Atta Mills running for the National Democratic Congress, and the Convention People’s Party’s candidate, one Paa Kwesi Nduom.